Author: Sarah Fortinsky

Former Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) will not be required to pay any additional fines or restitution related to his criminal conviction, according to his clemency order, which was made public on Monday. Santos was released from prison Friday after President Trump announced that he signed a sentence commutation for the former lawmaker, who reported to prison three months ago to begin his 87-month sentence. The clemency order grants Santos “an immediate commutation of his entire sentence to time served with no further fines, restitution, probation, supervised release, or other conditions.” Santos — who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated…

Actor Jon Cryer said on Sunday he was proud to be part of the “resistance cringe” after he was featured in the background of a news photograph from the “No Kings” protests this weekend. In a post on the social platform Bluesky, the “Two and a Half Men” actor highlighted the image, which was featured in a piece in The Atlantic titled “Resistance Is Cringe — But It’s Also Effective.” The image showed a sea of people holding pro-democracy signs and American flags and surrounding a massive banner depicting a scroll with the words “We the People” in large print,…

President Trump on Sunday called this weekend’s “No Kings” demonstrations against him a “joke” and rejected suggestions that he is acting like a monarch. “I’m not a king. I work my ass off to make our country great. That’s all it is. I’m not a king at all,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One while flying back to Washington, D.C. from Florida. Millions of Americans gathered at “No Kings” events across the country on Saturday, protesting Trump and his administration. Roughly 2,600 demonstrations took place in all 50 states, with massive events in cities including Washington, New York, Chicago and Los…

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Sunday that his state is targeting professors pushing “leftist ideologies” as he shared news of the latest college educator allegedly fired over their beliefs. In a post on social media, Abbott shared an Axios article about a University of Texas professor, Art Markman, who said the school’s leadership dismissed him from his administrative role in September “due to ideological differences.” “Univ. of Texas professor was dismissed from an administrative post overseeing university academic affairs because of ideological differences,” Abbott wrote, echoing the professor’s own statement. “Texas is targeting professors who are more focused on…

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday said the “No Kings” protests against President Trump this weekend were a “stunt” created by Democrats because they needed “cover” amid the ongoing government shutdown. In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” Johnson suggested there was no need for Trump’s critics to join No Kings demonstrations this weekend, saying the very fact that the protests took place is proof that they were not necessary. “The irony of the message is pretty clear for everyone. If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now. If President Trump was a king,…

Longtime conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway, who successfully ran President Trump’s 2016 campaign, recalled fielding numerous high-paying offers before she accepted a job in the first Trump administration as senior counselor to the president. In an interview on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” Conway said prospective buyers and clients flocked to her polling firm after she shepherded Trump’s campaign to victory, in what Conway acknowledged came as a surprise to some political observers. “I will say this: I was also staring at a goldmine of life-changing money because Trump won. People weren’t expecting it,” Conway said on the podcast. “I said, ‘We…

GOP strategist Karl Rove predicted Saturday that deploying National Guard troops to Democratic-led cities, over the objections of their respective states’ governors, will ultimately be a losing issue for President Trump. In an interview on Fox News’s “The Journal Editorial Report,” Rove pointed to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showing 58 percent of U.S. adults say the president should only deploy troops to areas with external threats — a view held by 72 percent of Democrats, 51 percent of Republicans and 53 percent who identify as “other.” Only 37 percent of the public say the president should be able to send…

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said on Sunday that a hypothetical commitment from Republicans to hold a vote by the end of the year on extending health care subsidies would not be sufficient to secure Democratic support for the GOP proposal to reopen the government. Kelly, in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” called for a “real negotiation” and solution to the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies that are expected to increase health insurance premiums for millions of Americans. “Not right now, no,” Kelly said, when asked whether he would support a deal that secures a GOP commitment to…

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) encouraged more Republicans to speak out against federal troop deployments across state lines, pointing to recent criticism from Oklahoma’s GOP governor as “good news.” “We’ve got to all stand together because there [are] truly unconstitutional actions that are coming out of this administration, coming at the states and the people of the United States and all of us, Democrats and Republicans, need to speak out about it,” Pritzker said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.” Pritzker praised Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) for pushing back on the Texas National Guard’s presence in the…

President Trump says he expects the remaining hostages to be released from Gaza on Monday as part of the first phrase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan. “The big thing is hostages are going to be released. It’s probably, our time, would be probably Monday, and you know, it’s… a terrible situation there,” the president said late Wednesday in a phone interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. Referring to where Hamas is holding those taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, Trump continued, “They’re deep, they’re deep in the earth, and they’re being gotten, and a lot of things are happening right…